BOOK SYNOPSIS
In this fascinating new book, Louis Vyhnaned explores for the first time criminal activities in New Orleans during the Roaring Twenties, one of the city's most turbulent periods. New Olreans enjoyed a vigorous economy in the early 1920s. The Crescent City was the nation's second leading port and the world's leading cotton market. The community's prosperity attracted an active criminal element, and crime consequently played an important role in New Orleans' development in the 1920s. Criminal activity was abetted by the city's liberal attitudes toward the joys of the flesh, a political machine that turned a blind eye toward certain criminal activities, and the population's distrust of authority figures, particularly after the begining of Prohibition. Before Prohibition, the city's bartenders openly violated Sunday closing laws, and New Orleanians took no pains to conceal their disdain for congressional prohibition laws. After January 1920, New Orleans became a center for liquor smugglers. The city was also a haven for gamblers, prostitutes, drug dealers, and eventually, the Mafia. No single group, however, controlled the criminal underground.

Crime played a role in New Orleans' political campaigns of the 1920s. Politicians used crime as a tool to smear their opponents, and the press used it as a way of shaping public opinion regarding individual candidates. Meanwhile, the police, charged with the major responsibility for law enformcement, had to act responsibly in spite of a corrupt local political machine that was soft on crime.

Buy your copy today, and explore the "Big Easy" in the era of speakeasies, flappers, and flivvers!

BOOK EXCERPTSContents

1. The City That Care Forgot

2. New Orleans Crime: The Politicians and the Press

3. New Orleans Crime: The Police

4. The Wettest Dry City in America

5. The Free State of New Orleans: Gambling in the Crescent City

-Photo Essay-
Mayors and State Political Figures
Newspaper Figures
Police Chiefs and Detectives
Crime and Criminals